Open season for younger guns Justin Rose, Adam Scott

Justin Rose of England plays a bunker shot during a practice round prior to the start of The 143rd Open Championship at Royal Liverpool on Tuesday, July 15, 2014 in Hoylake, England.

Photograph by: Mike Ehrmann
, Getty Images

HOYLAKE, England — Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson remain the two names that move the needle in golf, which may explain why the idea of the game's marquee figures leaping to the top in a major championship never seems to get old, even if they do.

But as Woods, a beat-up 38, rehabs from his latest injury and Mickelson, 44, struggles through a dismal season, perhaps — out of simple fairness — a line or two on Justin Rose might be in order.

Or Martin Kaymer, say.

Rose, the 2013 U.S. Open winner who turns 34 at the end of the month, has won his last two starts on successive weekends — the PGA Tour's Quicken Loans National followed by last weekend's Scottish Open — while Kaymer, not yet 30, won the Players Championship in May and the U.S. Open, his second major, in June.

Those aren't such bad credentials to be carrying into this week's Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, even if Kaymer has cooled off and Rose might be a little mentally battered after two straight victories.

Put them together, throw in 2013 Masters champ Adam Scott, who turns 34 on Thursday, and double major winners Bubba Watson, 35, and Rory McIlroy, 25, and you have a reasonable selection of players closer to their golfing primes than Woods and Mickelson.

The bookies seem to think so.

If it feels as though the turning of a page is coming, we're just late recognizing the signs. It has already commenced. The generation that followed Tiger and Phil is here, it is seasoned in majors, and it is pressure-tested.

Rose and Scott may be the prime examples of fine players who finally figured out the formula.

For the longest time, Rose was just that young kid who almost won the '98 Open at Birkdale as a 17-year-old, turned pro too young and never got as close again. And Scott was the Aussie with the million-dollar swing whose putter couldn't keep up with the rest of his game.

"I said actually when I was 30, so 2010, that the next 10 years from that point were going to be my prime," Rose said Tuesday. "That was going to be when I was either going to live up to whatever, Birkdale back in the day, or I wasn't. So it was the time for me to do it. Before then I kept chalking things up to experience and learning. There comes a point when you've got to stop learning and start doing."

For the longest time, maybe until he blew the lead and lost to Ernie Els at Royal Lytham two years ago, Scott never fully believed he had what it took to produce the goods in a big test. Then he won at Augusta the following spring.

Now …

"I think I've got it," he said. "I think Lytham was the proving to me that I've got what it takes to win. It was obviously not the finish I wanted there. But that gave me a lot of confidence, not just about playing well in majors, but also had the game to win an Open Championship, which is big for the confidence.

"I feel like I'm playing some of my best golf at the moment. And I don't know how long that's going to last. So I've got to try and take advantage of that and win all the events that I'd really love to win, and this is certainly one of them."

The difference between good and great often isn't very big.

"I think it's always easy after two wins to get carried away and say you're playing the best golf of your life," said Rose. "In 2010, I was probably playing just as well as I am now. But four or five years on, you're probably a little bit more equipped to deal with the big situation, and I have a lot more positives now under my belt, Ryder Cups and major championships. And I've been at the top end of the game now for a couple of years, I suppose. So that brings a lot of confidence."

So does winning the Scottish Open at Royal Aberdeen leading into this week, the same method Mickelson used before his win a year ago at Muirfield.

"My Open record is not particularly good if you look at it on paper. That would suggest that there definitely needs to be a change of mindset. That happened for me last week, I played the Scottish Open to get more familiar with links golf," Rose said.

"I've come into this tournament the last few years playing links golf, but doing it by myself, trying to find different venues to get the feel of it. But I really felt like it was important to get the scorecard in my hand last week, and do it under somewhat meaningful conditions

"You need to understand with your club what your miss is or what the tendency is for it, if it doesn't go to plan. I think you only really know that once you get a scorecard in your hand."

Scott chose the other route: skipping Royal Aberdeen, he arrived at Hoylake last week and has been playing practice rounds here, on-site.

"The way I see it, and it might be wrong, but why play that links when you can play this one? I feel like I can come out here and learn the golf course I'm trying to perform on," Scott said.

McIlroy has been plagued by bad Fridays lately, but his overall play is right there, and though Watson and Kaymer have not been particularly stellar in Open Championships, they are at that time in their careers where it can all come together because they know the sensation of overcoming Sunday pressure at a major — albeit a whole different kind.

Television still pines for Tiger and Phil, and if wishing could make it so, one or both would be in the thick of it Sunday.

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